A veteran developer discovered a beta version of Half-Life on his storage unit, and made it available to anyone for download.

What is the coolest item you've found when cleaning out a garage or a storage unit belonging to a relative? Former game developer Chad Jessup probably found the beta version of Half-Life this month. Reagan, a videogame preservation enthusiast, has shared it with the Internet Archive for everyone to enjoy.

Jessup has credits in the industry for Destiny 2's extensions and Xbox 360 Shadowrun. He also mentions being an external tester on Half-Life. Some of Half-Life publisher Sierra QA workers appear in the credits of the game as a special thank you to "all our other hardworking Beta testers" thanks to the "from the hip crediting" of the '90s. But Jessup’s industry credentials and the fact he had leave no room for doubt.

Jessup posted his first post on X, "The Everything App", on September 12 about cleaning out his old shed. Less than a week after, he found a CD-ROM labeled, "Half Life, Beta 2, Nettest 2" dated October 20, 1998. Jessup explained in a tweet that "This version was a few weeks prior to the official release but people have also found unfinished levels and script and texture differences." Some surprising differences."

Reagan, the archivist has uploaded an image to the Internet Archive. However, installing it is not for the faint-hearted. Commenters mention having to remove specific files for the game's multiplayer modes to work, and its online service will attempt to connect with a no longer existing service. Reagan's personal blog has posted some of their initial findings about the beta build.

The changes that have been documented are mostly subtle. There are differences in scripting, models, textures, and AI. However, there is one very significant change to the level, Forget About Freeman. In the beta version, the level diverges completely partway into the Communications Center. This map is the basis for Half-Life's Uplink Demo level, and its original version was one of the oldest levels in the game according to Reagan.

There's also likely to be more to discover: Reagan spent only 15 hours with the build prior to writing their initial report. Jessup's reference to "unfinished levels" sounds tantalizing - assuming he didn't mean the WIP version of Forget About Freeman. This is a great win for videogame preservation and gives me hope that there will be more serendipitous finds in the future. I often joke about a former Black Isle employee discovering the source code for Icewind Dale 2 in the footwells their car. Maybe that's not so absurd.